No Varsity Cup champion is likely to be crowned in 2020
Because the COVID-19 crisis, one of South African sport's greatest success stories of the new millennium, the Varsity Cup Rugby tournament, will most probably for the first time in its existence of 13 years not crown a champion this year.
Although the management of the Varsity Cup in a statement last week tried to still keep the back door slightly open, hoping that a way will be found to complete the 2020 tournament, this possibility is almost zero according to all indications.
The Varsity Cup board said they took note of the possibility that sport may not be able to take place within the university space in the remaining calendar and academic year of 2020.
Should there be no sports allowed for the remainder of the 2020 calendar year, the Varsity Cup board has agreed to the following decisions:
- The 2020 Varsity Cup, Varsity Shield and Varsity Young Guns tournaments will be declared incomplete. There will be no overall winner awarded in any of the competitions and the trophies will remain with the 2019 winners.
- As Madibaz (Port Elizabeth) had already achieved an unassailable log points tally on the combined log of 2019 and 2020. They will therefore be promoted to the Varsity Cup, in line with the current Varsity Cup bye-laws.
- There will be no team relegated from the Varsity Cup Competition and no promotion relegation match between the Varsity Cup and Varsity Shield Competitions. There will also be no promotion relegation match between the bottom Varsity Shield team and the USSA contender. Therefore, there will be 10 teams in the Varsity Cup for 2021.
- The university, other than the member universities currently participating in the Varsity Cup and Varsity Shield, who is ranked highest at USSA, at the sole discretion of the USSA Executive Committee, will be automatically promoted to the Varsity Shield for the 2021 season. This will bring the total number of teams in the Varsity Shield to seven (7) teams.
- Following the 2021 season, the bottom two teams in the FNB Varsity Cup will be automatically relegated to the Varsity Shield and the bottom team in the FNB Varsity Shield will be automatically relegated. This will bring both competitions to eight (8) teams each for the 2022 season and onwards.
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